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Brian Tierney loses bid

April 28, 2010

A group of local investors allied with the current management of Philadelphia’s two daily papers and its website have lost a bid for the company. C.E.O. of Philadelphia Media Holdings Brian Tierney announced the results of the bid in New York City today.

A group of local investors allied with the current management of Philadelphia’s two daily papers and its website have lost a bid for the company. C.E.O. of Philadelphia Media Holdings Brian Tierney announced the results of the bid in New York City today.

After a bitter dispute with creditors, Tierney’s group of local investors failed to keep control of the papers. The creditors won the auction with $135 million.

It’s unclear what this will mean for the papers, and the 4,500 employees.

John Morton is a veteran newspaper analyst. He says to the new owners it’s about money, “It’s clear that the creditors hearts and souls aren’t in the newspaper business, its into making money. And in this instance trying to get back what they had at risk so I suspect they’ll be open to doing a lot of things that are not beneficial to journalism in Philadelphia.”

Morton says the new editors could downsize to one paper, possibly closing the Daily News.

But representatives of the creditors insist they have no plans to shut down the paper and agreed to collective bargaining.